2024. Week VI

 Hello Internet,

Persona 3: Reload officially released on Friday, and while it was not waiting for me when I got home (as it was in my dreams).  So far, I am enjoying it, though I do have a few (very minor) complaints.  Firstly, Persona 3 FES occupies a lot of space in my brain.  Worst still, I just recently played Persona 3 Portable.  So, I have all of the old voices still stuck in my head, and from what I can tell, a lot of the dialogue is recycled.  As a result, the quality of the voice over or the cast delivering it is irrelevant to me.  My memories infect and degrade every appreciation I might have.

Secondly, from what I have gathered, Reload is built from base-game P3, not FES or Portable.  There have been improvements to mechanics and UI, but there is potential for content being missing that I am a little bit worried about.  I know for fact that FEMC and The Answer will be missing, but there I do not know if Chidori's redemption arc will be.  It was not in the base game, however, and that is...concerning.

Lastly, each Persona game is unique, even all the way back to the OG Persona.  P3 and P4 both are very aesthetically attractive games, P5 really identified itself as being a game that is just as stylish as it is substansive.  Every aspect of it screamed personality, from the soundtrack to the menues and even to the navigation of the Tokyo city streets.  Things like the beeping of voices being visualized are really unique to that game, and they have been carried over to Reload.

This is not unheard of in Persona as a franchise.  One of my favorite things about Persona is the way that each installment grows on and evolves added features from the previous installments.  It is an anthology game that is keenly aware of and constantly improving on its own formula.  That said, Reload feels less like a new iteration of P3 and more like a P5 clone with a P3 skin.  Again, this is not BAD, but it does feel a little soulless.

Part of this is the result of how much of the game is truly, genuinely built on the OG P3 base, which does concern me.  P3 comparative to all of the other games that came after it, has some...problematic moments.  Kenji forcing his affections onto his teacher to the point of her having to leave the school and find a new job? A problem.  Maiko's parents full on hitting her and the dialogue options all being some form of "well, you kind of had it coming"?  Problem.

I do not know what has or has not been changed from the OG, and I have not gotten far enough to see if those things are as egregious Reload as they were in FES, but I do know that a lot of the OG's DNA is baked into Reload.  I do not envision major overhauls to the game's many problematic Social Link (like the teacher who confesses to having a crush on you in a virtual world?), especially when I have not seen (so far) some of the better mechanics from P5 migrate into this version of the game.

All of that said: it is still, IMO, perhaps the best way to play the game.  What things I have seen so far are great.  The voice cast is dedicated if not quality, the visuals are vastly improved, and the music is less bombastic but that makes it more comfortable to inhabit the world for longer periods of time.  I will (possibly) do a longer post for it another time, but for right now: 3.5/4 Stars, pending that the changes I am hoping the game will have are there.

Thanks for reading.

RWS

P.S.

-Short Rest-

-Schedule-

1. Final Fantasy XVI

2. Final Fantasy III

3. DnD5e

4. Final Fantasy VII REMAKE: Intergrade

5. Fortnite

6. .hack//OUTBREAK

7. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD Remix

-Books-

0. Tower: Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

1. SJ/One Piece 1098

-One-Punch Man Punch 196

-DC Comics: New 52 Green Arrow: The Midas Touch

-My Hero Academia 157

-Boom! Studios: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers 4—4

-Boruto: The Next Generation 47

-Marvel Comics: Ultimates Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra 4

-JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders 26 100%

-One Piece 1102+

-One-Punch Man 196+

-DC Comics: New 52 Flash: Move Forward 1—8

-My Hero Academia Vol. 18, 158—167 

-Boom! Studios: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Vol. 2, 5—8

-Boruto: Next Generation Vol.13, 48—51

-Marvel Comics: Ultimate Elektra 1—5

-JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Vol. 3, 27—40 

2. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

3. Discworld: The Color of Magic

-Games-

i. Backlog/Final Fantasy III 19hrs (Guide pg.77)

ii. PS+/Final Fantasy VII REMAKE: Intergrade 49hrs (INTERmission DLC)

iii. Backlog II/.hack//OUTBREAK

iv. Replay/Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix HD Remix

v. Final Fantasy XVI 58hrs

vi. Persona 3: Reload 93hrs

-Shows-

0. Towers: Ms. Marvel 100% (01/20/2024)

1. Critical Role Campaign 3 Part I, Ep. 8: "The Woodworker's Quandry"—11 (Level Up to 5) 64% (8—11)

2. Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy, Ep. 16: "For Candia, part 1"—19 79% (15—19)

3. Dragonball Ep. 59—153 38%

4. Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 701—713 0%

5. Batman: The Animated Series Ep. 132–165 48%

6. Gargoyles 113 100% (01/29/2024)

7. Young Justice 112—126 42%

8. Marvel's She-Hulk 1—9 0%